My Life As A Cat

 

Some scientists have gone on the record stating that the common house cat has a pineal gland more similar to our own than any other animal out there.

But even though quite similar, the cat’s pineal gland is supposedly twice as large as ours.

Those scientists who examine the matter explain that this is how while even when fully awake for the day, a cat gets that spacey look to her. The animal begins to stare out at some point in space with such intensity that we can only imagine what the cat is thinking.

While this is happening, we humans are sometimes a bit judge-y, “It’s a dust mote, you silly beast.” Unless of course the cat is looking at the back of the chair where six months earlier, Granma laid her head down just moments before she died. Then we are apt to get a little shiver down our spine.

Other people speculate that when this happens the cat is communing with beings from another dimension. This makes sense because cats tend to act as if they truly are from some other dimension. In the 1990s during the Mad Cow crisis, someone asked on an internet bulletin board, “Please don’t mention that cats can get this disease?” The reply was a swift one: “How would we ever know?”

Now I tend to feel the spaced-out cat is imagining the possibilities of living in the house across the street, where Kitty believes the cat food is pricier, more accessible, and best of all, there are no dogs.

In any event, all the above-mentioned phenomena might be why if I had to chose to be anyone or any being other than myself, I would really like to be a cat.

But perhaps not a house cat.

After all, if I was a cheetah, I could outrun a lion who only manages 50mph, a gazelle who tops out at 60, and a horse who can gallop a mere 55. Cheetahs, as the super turbo-powered of the feline world, have been known to run as fast at 80 mph.

When a cheetah reaches the end of their life, which is somewhere around the ten to twelve-year mark, they remain as fast as they were a decade earlier. No need for a walker for these beasts!

When I lived in Chicago, in the late Seventies, I would visit Brookfield Zoo, the toddler in tow, and together we would seek out the zookeeper who kept a cheetah as a pet.

He never explained what the zoo management types thought about him doing this. But he made his rounds, with the cat behaving the way any medium-sized dog might, following him into the golf cart that was used to go from one area to another. The cheetah appeared as happy as could be, just to be driven about in said cart at its ponderous 18 mph.

When Gabe and I found the zookeeper, he’d make his way to an area that was fenced in, and then the three of us would sit and pet the “kitty” while the animal purred like crazy.

Decades later, when my father passed away, my spouse and I took in the exhibit at the Chicago Natural History Museum featuring ancient Egyptian relics. We were both intrigued by many items in the display, which spread across two separate halls of the museum. But in addition to the mummies and the various hieroglyphics, paintings, and sculptures, we found a note on a papyrus scroll. The hieroglyphics were translated, and what came across was the fervent prayer to the Egyptian goddess Bast, to please restore the health of the family’s beloved cat. (The more things change…)

Now if some Power made me into a cat, I hope I would be as wonderful as the cats my husband and I have enjoyed over the years.

For several months in 1998, our Siamese cat Sophie stayed at my bedside while I slept and waited out a sickness to pass. Doing this meant she did not make the rounds with our elderly landlord Tony, which involved walking around the garden and helping him pull out the weeds from the iris and rose beds. Despite her love for Tony, Sophie knew I needed her more.

Several years later, when she was in the final stage of cancer, I stayed home from work to be with her. It only seemed fair. And one afternoon, she thrust her body with such force into my chest cavity, as if she could avoid dying if only she could simply merge into my heart. Right then and there, I broke down with needed tears.

I am an animal person. I love dogs and cats both. A dog is fun and makes their human buddy get out and walk around in the fresh air. They play games, and when you are sad, they do their best to cheer you up.

A cat is a bit different than that. But when a cat truly loves you, they know your soul.

####

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  1. Gossamer Cat Coolidge
    Gossamer Cat
    @GossamerCat

    Beautiful!   And when it comes to cats,  I know whereof I speak.

    • #1
  2. Arahant Member
    Arahant
    @Arahant

    Yep. Cheetahs are a bit racy, though.

    • #2
  3. Hartmann von Aue Member
    Hartmann von Aue
    @HartmannvonAue

    Thanks. Cats are wonderful animals. Now the cheetah, I totally understand how the zookeeper could have one as a pet. They have been domesticated at least once. The Ancient Egyptians used them as hunting animals. 

    • #3
  4. Basil Fawlty Member
    Basil Fawlty
    @BasilFawlty

    Arahant (View Comment):

    Yep. Cheetahs are a bit racy, though.

    But they never seem to win.

    • #4
  5. Douglas Pratt Coolidge
    Douglas Pratt
    @DouglasPratt

    • #5
  6. Arahant Member
    Arahant
    @Arahant

    Douglas Pratt (View Comment):

    “I’m just here to shed on your black shirt.”

    • #6
  7. CarolJoy, Thread Hijacker Coolidge
    CarolJoy, Thread Hijacker
    @CarolJoy

    Basil Fawlty (View Comment):

    Arahant (View Comment):

    Yep. Cheetahs are a bit racy, though.

    But they never seem to win.

    If they did not stop to eat the other contestants, like those fleet of foot gazelles, they just might win.

    • #7
  8. kedavis Coolidge
    kedavis
    @kedavis

    Text forwarded to relatives and friends.

    • #8
  9. Full Size Tabby Member
    Full Size Tabby
    @FullSizeTabby

    I’m pleased for you that you have had cats that cared about you.

    Every cat that has shared our home has had one interest and one interest only – his or her own comfort. Mrs. Tabby and I were sometimes jealous of the lives our cats led – they lay around and did nothing (occasionally if their desire to lay about coincides with our desire for a warm lap, they would lay on our laps), and they got food presented to them (often in virtually unlimited quantities), water, a warm fluffy bed (unless they chose a piece of our furniture or a rug in the sunshine), and a warm fireplace in the winter when we lived in a cold climate. 

    • #9
  10. CarolJoy, Thread Hijacker Coolidge
    CarolJoy, Thread Hijacker
    @CarolJoy

    kedavis (View Comment):

    Text forwarded to relatives and friends.

    Really? Sort of an “Aw shucks” moment on my end.

    (While my cat persona would be thinking “You should have gotten it to them sooner, Dahlink!”)

     

     

     

    ###

    • #10
  11. PHCheese Inactive
    PHCheese
    @PHCheese

    I like Jaguars but Cougar is much cheaper and American made

    • #11
  12. kedavis Coolidge
    kedavis
    @kedavis

    PHCheese (View Comment):

    I like Jaguars but Cougar is much cheaper and American made

    Some cougars are pretty hot, but mostly they’re just sad.

    • #12
  13. cqness Inactive
    cqness
    @cqness

    What’s mine is mine, what’s yours is negotiable.

    • #13
  14. cqness Inactive
    cqness
    @cqness

    You talkin’ to me?

    • #14
  15. Clifford A. Brown Member
    Clifford A. Brown
    @CliffordBrown

    Purrfection! Don’t be shy, step up and join the conversation this month, playing off September’s theme “If I was a —, I would —.” 

    Interested in Group Writing topics that came before? See the handy compendium of monthly themes. Check out links in the Group Writing Group. You can also join the group to get a notification when a new monthly theme is posted.

    • #15
  16. GLDIII Temporarily Essential Reagan
    GLDIII Temporarily Essential
    @GLDIII

    She sleeps under my arm most nights, and spends her day with me while I work from home. I think she would be upset if I start going back to the office again.

    • #16
  17. CarolJoy, Thread Hijacker Coolidge
    CarolJoy, Thread Hijacker
    @CarolJoy

    GLDIII Temporarily Essential (View Comment):

    She sleeps under my arm most nights, and spends her day with me while I work from home. I think she would be upset if I start going back to the office again.

    I’m wondering how much sleep you would get, the kitty under your arm all night. But I bet work is more fun with this character around to cheer you up.

    My 22 lb white cat liked sleeping across my knees. Rather cut off the circulation, that did.

    • #17
  18. kedavis Coolidge
    kedavis
    @kedavis

    Everyone on the internet – everyone in the world, really – needs to know about Grandpa Mason.  There are several videos of him available from Tiny Kittens, but this one might be the most comprehensive:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9AaZN-WiNi4

    Flatbush Cats does a lot of rescue work in New York.  Most of their videos include “street cat rescue.”  My favorites are “Street cat rescue before and after” and “street cat rescue special delivery.”

    There’s also a guy in some kind of smaller town in North Africa who does some pretty amazing stuff, under the youtube name “kitten is a life.” 

    All worth checking out.  Perhaps especially “the kitten who ate gravel.”

    • #18
  19. CarolJoy, Thread Hijacker Coolidge
    CarolJoy, Thread Hijacker
    @CarolJoy

    kedavis (View Comment):

    Everyone on the internet – everyone in the world, really – needs to know about Grandpa Mason. There are several videos of him available from Tiny Kittens, but this one might be the most comprehensive:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9AaZN-WiNi4

    Flatbush Cats does a lot of rescue work in New York. Most of their videos include “street cat rescue.” My favorites are “Street cat rescue before and after” and “street cat rescue special delivery.”

    There’s also a guy in some kind of smaller town in North Africa who does some pretty amazing stuff, under the youtube name “kitten is a life.”

    All worth checking out. Perhaps especially “the kitten who ate gravel.”

    You kindly introduced me to Granpa Mason some weeks ago, and tonight I needed something gentle and sweet to watch before my glass of milk and turning down the pillow.

    I am very glad you posted this – I have the feeling I will be sleeping soundly, thinking of all the good things that happen in the world rather than the sometimes overwhelming political problems.

    G’nite!

    • #19
  20. Marjorie Reynolds Coolidge
    Marjorie Reynolds
    @MarjorieReynolds


    Here’s Ruby. She might look like a teddy bear but  when it comes to cuddles she says who and when. 

    • #20
  21. Arahant Member
    Arahant
    @Arahant

    “There’s a cat there. Where’d she come from? I’ve never seen her before in my life!”

    • #21
  22. Arahant Member
    Arahant
    @Arahant

    That was about seven years ago, and Morgana is a grown cat now, but they still look at each other that way.

    Miss O’Malley

    • #22
  23. Arahant Member
    Arahant
    @Arahant

    Morgana, with attitude.

    • #23
  24. Miffed White Male Member
    Miffed White Male
    @MiffedWhiteMale

    “Shadow”

    “Tweak”

    “Chandar”

     

    Just one of my favorites.  Sleeping on her back in the cat tree.

     

     

    Sure, they’re friends now, but give it two minutes.

     

    • #24
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